Caffeine

While the energy efficiency settings on modern computers are laudable when it comes to saving the planet there’s little more infuriating than the screensaver appearing at an inopportune moment in your latest stunning demonstration. Worse still is the machine entering a narcoleptic stupor and powering down completely mid-demo.

Of course you can turn off the screensaver and adjust the power settings but to do so on a regular basis is annoying for any trainer. On a Mac this is where Caffeine comes in.

Caffeine is a small menu bar application from Lighthead Software that prevents your Mac from automatically dimming its screen, starting a screen saver or going to sleep.

Rather than navigating the System Preferences to turn off several options Caffeine works with a single click on a systemwide menu bar icon to stay awake and your default settings can be re-enabled in the same way turning off Caffeine’s awake state via the menu bar. Caffeine’s current state is indicated via it’s menu bar icon; an empty cup indicates Caffeine is not enabled while a full cup indicates it is.

In addition to this basic function more advanced settings are available via the right-click where the “Activate for” menu provides the opportunity to select from a preconfigured range of durations and the Preferences provides startup options.